3 Times Thursday - Fun Fillo Bites

It's 3 Times Thursday, and today we are exploring Fun Fillo Bites. Mini fillo shells are the entertainer's best friend. They are inexpensive and come 15 to a package. They can be filled with savory or sweet delights. They can be heated, chilled, or served at room temperature. There are dozens of websites with hundreds of recipes ideas on what to do with these crunchy, flaky cups. Here are three of our favorite, because they are so simple and so delicious, and they all contain one of our other go-to ingredients - cheese!

#3. Goat Cheese and Chow Chow Fillo Bites - Creamy, sweet, crunchy and spicy, all in one yummy bite.

Ingredients:

2 packages mini fillo shells

6 ounces plain goat cheese

1 jar Mariah's Sweet and Hot Chow Chow Relish

Remove phyllo cups from package and set out on serving tray. Fill phyllo cups with desired amount of goat cheese and top with spoonful of "chow chow" relish. 

#2. Puck, Nuts 'n Honey - Puck is a Middle Eastern spreadable cheese that comes in a jar and tastes very similar to brie. It's wonderful with nuts and honey. And the name is kinda funny.

Ingredients:

2 packages mini fillo shells

1 jar Puck

4 ounces chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds or pistachios, or a mix of all of these!)

2 ounces honey

Remove phyllo cups from package and place on a baking sheet. Fill phyllo cups with desired amount of cheese and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Put them in a 350F oven for about 15 minutes. Remove to a serving tray and drizzle with honey. 

#1. Brie and Berry Bites - Sweet, tart and so elegant. The balsamic really spruces up the flavor of the berries. Serve these as an appetizer or a dessert!

Ingredients:

1 package mini fillo shells

4 ounces brie

1 pint berries

balsamic glaze, or reduced balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 350. Lay phyllo cups on a cookie sheet. Fill each cup with brie, top with a berry and bake for about 10 minutes, until heated through. Drizzle with balsamic glaze and serve warm. Idea plus: Try it with apples or peaches drizzled with honey.

FFwD: Crispy Crackly Apple Almond Tart

Last weekend, which was a long weekend, we spent Saturday taking a drive around the southeast corner of Connecticut, picking apples and visiting wineries. In other words, we had a perfect fall day. We'll tell you more about the wineries later, but as far as the apples go, we picked some big beautiful sweet-tart Winesaps and some deep dark maroon Macouns (considered by some to be the finest eating apple there is). Then we saw that this week's French Fridays with Dorie (in which we haven't been able to participate in some time) was "Crispy Crackly Apple Almond Tart," and we were totally psyched. How fortuitous!

The "French Fridays" Bible

A baking recipe, with a guardian angel for the baking-challenged.

Mise en place is fancy for "uncork the (French!) wine and let's get this recipe started"

Yes, it's fall, ya'll. And what says fall in New England better than apples? We have posted plenty of apple recipes over the years: recipes for doughnuts, pies (not one but two!), risotto, and other savory dishes (here and here), have featured apples and/or apple cider. But this fall, we were looking for something new, and Around My French Table (the book members of French Fridays with Dorie cooks from) had just what we needed.

Whisking together almond flour, sugar, egg, vanilla and heavy cream... 

...makes a heavenly almond cream topping for the tart.

Ooh la la - buttered and sugared sheets of phyllo dough!

After the cream is chilled...

it is carefully spread over the delicate phyllo.

While we can't give you the recipe (club rules!), we can tell you that it wasn't particularly difficult, even for the baking-challenged, and even with working with phyllo dough (which seems scary, doesn't it?). Dorie's direction are clear and straight-forward. We followed them strictly (except for using a different type of apple), and the finished product was incredible - both crispy and crackly, with a delightful balance of tart, juicy apple and sweet, nutty almond. The neighbors loved it, we loved it, and it made us that much more comfortable with baking and with using sheets of phyllo - that ever-versatile yet oh-so-elegant ingredient.  

Chris is a slicing wizard

Laying them perfectly over the almond cream.

It almost looks easy!

Some local apple maple jam makes a nice post-baking glaze.

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: buy the book and start making the recipes. From what we can tell, there isn't a bad one in the bunch.